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10 Jun 2015

Newly-elected Speaker, Yakubu Dogara pleads with House of Reps members; ...pledges selfless service

The newly-elected Speaker of the eighth House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday, listed what he would do as the speaker, saying that he would join in the fight against corruption.

Honourable Dogara stated this in his inaugural speech, while he tasked members to bury their hatchets, saying “there is the need to heal the wounds inflicted on groups and individual lawmakers as a result of the contest.”

According to him, “My Honourable Colleagues, after the euphoria of today comes the difficulties of tomorrow.” Continuing, he said “we take office at a period in our history when the morale of our people are at its lowest ebb. “We take office when our economy is in shambles, when the living conditions of Nigerians are in poor shape, when infrastructure are nonexistent or, at best, decayed. Our people are no longer safe in their homes. “We face a debt crises once again. We are in a period of great social and political malaise. Provision of basic necessities of life for our people are becoming increasingly difficult. “Long fuel lines, high cost of living and epileptic electricity supply or, in most instances, complete darkness, has become the order of the day. “The health needs of the majority of our people are not being met. Extreme poverty still envelopes a large percentage of our population. For too long, Nigerians have suffered degradation and neglect. The list is endless,” he said.

Dogara added that it would be unfair to say that efforts had not been made by past leaders to solve all the problems, but he promised that “we shall wage an unrelenting legislative war on insecurity, unemployment, poverty, lack of power supply, educational inadequacies, health problems and social decay.”